March 10, 2013

GELLI ARTS Printing - First Experiment

Yesterday, I did my first experiments with my 8” X
10” GELLI ARTS Gel Printing Plate. The above photo shows the stencils and masks
that I worked with.

I created my own masks with Tyvek® which you can purchase from a
home improvement store – or even better recycle the Tyvek envelopes that you
receive in the mail. Out of all the prints that I made that day, I liked the
results that I achieved with Tyvek the best.

Above are a few of the prints that I created.

Gel Printing Tips

Set
up your supplies first because things can get messy. I filled a baking pan with
water so that I could easily clean the paint off my stamps. Keep a spray bottle,
filled with water, nearby to clean your plate between prints. A roll of paper
towels helps too. Line a table, or floor, with newspapers. Then, as you create
the wet prints, you’ll have a place for them to dry.

On your first try,
there is a small learning curve as you experiment with the proper amount of
paint to put on the Plate, the best paint, paper & stencils to use. In the beginning,
I tended to put too much paint on my plate. I used both acrylic craft paint & tube paint.

After working with
8” x 10 ¾” deli paper and 10 1/2” x 12” deli paper, I prefer the latter for my
8” x 10” plate because it leaves a nice, white border around the print which
makes it easy to frame.

Save your scrap
paper, i.e., the papers that you used to clean your brayer – and the paper
towels which you used to clean your hands. The photo below doesn't show the beautifuls blues and purples on the paper towels. You can use these discarded paper gems in your Art Journals, ATCs or other
projects.

Next Steps

I plan to use my thin, commercial stencils for my
next printing session. And I will be making more stencils w Tyvek®. I also want to experiment with fabric,
decorative papers, tracing paper, tissue paper and maybe even canvas paper.